Spirited Competition?

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Terry Wostr at the Argus writes today on the rather amiable competition between the Democratic contenders for Governor:
Democratic candidates for governor are directing their political venom at Republican Gov. Mike Rounds, separately faulting the incumbent's inability to generate revenue for public eduction, among other shortcomings, in an effort to draw attention to the campaign.

But three weeks from primary day, Jack Billion of Sioux Falls and Dennis Wiese of Flandreau also are trying to convince Democratic voters they have ideas of their own. They are competing for the party's nomination June 6.

Wiese would tap budget reserves and trust funds to boost spending on education in a state where rural school districts are struggling to make ends meet and where teachers are consistently among the lowest paid in the nation. Billion would draw more on interest money from a special trust fund to do the same.

Neither will give serious consideration to a state income tax - long-forbidden territory in South Dakota politics - so each must advance creative ways to pay for their ideas.
Read it here as you wait for one of them to break out. Yes, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm waiting for one of them to differentiate themself from the other in a more dramatic fashion.

This is a political battle, not a knitting circle. They face an impossibly difficult election against the incumbent Governor, and this race is supposed to test their mettle. Yet the level of competition they're exhibiting is boring us to death. Neither one can say that they are a better choice for South Dakota over the other? Even the amount of advertising each one has out there is underwhelming.

I think what has observers frustrated is that neither one of them seem to want it very badly. It's almost a lacksadaisical desire.

I can almost imagine the conversations....
"Dennis, are you going to have to run?"

"Beats me, Jack. Are you going to get stuck with it?"
Because that's how it comes off. Neither one shows the all consuming passion that they need to take them through the long haul of the November election.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think you are greatly overestimating (though it's not just you) the strength of our incumbent governor. Look at the governors from the past 30 years. Kneip, Janklow, Mickelson. Rounds is a very weak figure in comparison. He hasn't been bold. A lot of serious problems have been ignored. This race is going to be much closer than what most of us realize.
9:40 AM
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